Ethnohistory of the conflict between Kaingang indigenes and the expansion fronts in Serra Gaúcha (19th century)

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of ethnohistory applied to documental research on conflicts involving indigenous people in the colonies of Serra Gaúcha in the mid-19th century. Through a critical methodological approach to the representation of indigenous people in historical sources and collaborative dialog with current leaderships, the article points out intersections between oral narratives and social memory with an approach to the so-called New Indigenous History. This methodology seeks to find indigenous people when they are invisible, and to highlight their leading role in Brazilian history, avoiding binarisms and complexifying their participation in the events involved. This reflection is based on documental research in which there are scattered accounts of conflicts between Kaingang indigenous people and various agents of the expansion fronts in the Serra Gaúcha in the 1850s. In the social memory of these indigenous people, there is the chief João Grande/Nivö, whose actions are marked by the non-acceptance of the enclosures and the conflict against the invaders of their land. By dialoguing the findings of documental research with indigenous leaderships, the result is a form of ethnohistory that represents the struggle of the ancestors of the indigenous people who are fighting today for recognition of their territories.